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We've been a bit behind on the Wasteland 2 gamescom coverage, so I thought it was time for a new round-up, helped by the excellent Wasteland 2 Tumblr.
We'll start with the RPG Codex preview:<blockquote>As Findley's party encounter a hunkered down enemy position, Keenan explains that they now have several decisions ahead of them. An obvious option here would be to use stealth. Every enemy has a line of sight cone, with three different colors signifying their awareness at a given range. As characters gain more points in stealth, enemy fields of vision and detection range shrink, and the cones get smaller. Findley sends his stealth-trained character up on a ridge, flanking the enemy position. Since the enemy hasn't detected him yet, he is able to initiate combat with a surprise shot from his rifle. And so the carnage begins.
Now, it is no secret that I was skeptical about Wasteland 2's combat system. Having only one or two relevant combat skills for each character severely limits their strategic options, and having few tactical options in combat seems to limit any possibility of tactical depth. It becomes evident during the presentation, however, that Wasteland 2's systems are more complex than they might seem at first. Adding complexity to the character system is an array of Fallout-like traits and perks. Traits have bonuses and penalties - they are boosts to a character's abilities that come with a trade-off. Perks are additional bonuses characters can pick on level-up – although exactly how often characters get to pick them, the guys weren't sure of yet. “Still being balanced,” Fargo commented. He also pointed out that they had discussed different systems for allowing characters to add traits later in the game. “Basically,” Fargo begins, “we want traits that express how your character changes as he makes decisions in the wasteland. As the player progresses through the game, the characters are changed by the decisions they made and the consequences they have. We'd like to exemplify that via traits in the character system.” All of this seems to add a bit more strategic variety to the character system, beyond just stacking up a few combat skills, though only in the final implementation will we see whether it was successful or not.
Back in the firefight, Findley has sent his men into cover, and the enemies are scrambling to cover as well, demonstrating the game's cover mechanics. I ask Beekers: “you have some sort of range system in place as well, right?” Beekers nods, and asks Findley to select a ranged character. When the character is selected, squares light up on the screen. “The green squares,” Beekers explains and points to the green squares close to the character, “represent a bonus to hit. The character is so close that hitting with a firearm is trivial. The yellow squares,” he continues and points at medium range from the character “represent normal range. Finally, the red squares,” Beekers points to the squares farthest away from the character, “represent a penalty to hit due to the range.”
Fargo continues with an overview of the game's weapon mechanics. Ammo is generally sparse, although depending on your choices, you might see a lot or little of it. Use multiple guys with assault rifles? Better come packed with salvage skills to stack up on ammo, and even then, you will often run dry. Focus on single shot weapons and salvaging skills? Perhaps you'll be able to amass plenty of bullets with enough work, but your guns won't be as versatile or powerful as other weapons. Focus on multiple weapons? Well, then you're giving up on other skills. “With Wasteland 2,” Fargo explains, “our driving design is to make sure everything has trade-offs.” Assault rifles are versatile and powerful, handguns are reliable and have decent range, while sniper rifles are accurate and devastating, but can't even be used at too close a range. When a rabid wolf charges Findley's sniper, it applies a damage-over-time effect to him while he scrambles to get some distance from the wolf so he can fire at it.</blockquote>Then we move on to Hooked Gamers:<blockquote>With up to 30 different skills to draw from, switching between characters to find the right skill for a particular task can be a bit of a chore. To solve this, Wasteland 2 introduces a party bar which combines many of the most often used skills into a single bar that is active when the entire party is selected. Select a single character and you’ll still be able to zoom in on his or her specific skills. Fans of the genre will also appreciate the smart inventory feature. Found loot will not just go into the lead character’s inventory but to the person who is most likely to be able to make use of it. This way, sniper rifle bullets no longer end up in your melee fighters’ inventory but in your sniper’s pockets instead.
There is also a lot of emphasis at using the right weapon for the right job. A sniper rifle is only effective at long range and becomes a liability when enemies get into close range. Handguns will do some damage when a target is further away but receive damage bonuses as you close the distance. Bullets also have two specific characteristics: the rate at which they expand upon impact – and thus the amount of damage they inflict – and the penetration value – their ability to penetrate armor. Picking the right ammo for the job adds a whole new dimension to combat, especially if you consider the scarcity of ammo in the wastelands.
Apart from your run-of-the-mill healing and repair skills, a number of more esoteric ones have been added as well. The Animal Whisper skill proved to be a particularly fun one, in a somewhat perverted way. In most cases, a minefield would require someone with a high perception skill and someone with the ability to disable mines to get through unscathed. But a talented Animal Whisperer might convince a nearby herd of sheep to... well, you get the picture.</blockquote>Polygon has a brief piece and a video interview with Brian Fargo:<blockquote>Wasteland 2 appears to be exactly the sort of game I expected and that Fargo wanted to make, a game that is distinctly not for everyone, something that publishers turned their backs on, but that some gamers waited their lives for.
Wasteland 2 will take place 15 years after the first game ended. That means its jump in time is less than the real one that occurred between Wasteland and the sequel. It will be 100 years after bombs dropped, desert rangers will still be the cops of the future.
The game's characters will feature six attributes, a dozen combat skills, some knowledge skills and even more general skills. Those general skills run from the mundane (weapon smithing) to the unusual (kiss ass).
The game seems packed with the attention to detail and level of nuance that today's gamers might not enjoy. There is, for instance, quite a lot of text in this game, just like in the original.
Fargo seems to be creating a game he's been thinking about for a long time, following an idea he's been pondering for years.
He says he doesn't know when the game is coming out yet (the beta is in October) and that he's not going to rush that decision.
"I waited 20 years," he said. "Lets get this right."</blockquote>Finally, there's a video interview over at DualShockers.
We'll start with the RPG Codex preview:<blockquote>As Findley's party encounter a hunkered down enemy position, Keenan explains that they now have several decisions ahead of them. An obvious option here would be to use stealth. Every enemy has a line of sight cone, with three different colors signifying their awareness at a given range. As characters gain more points in stealth, enemy fields of vision and detection range shrink, and the cones get smaller. Findley sends his stealth-trained character up on a ridge, flanking the enemy position. Since the enemy hasn't detected him yet, he is able to initiate combat with a surprise shot from his rifle. And so the carnage begins.
Now, it is no secret that I was skeptical about Wasteland 2's combat system. Having only one or two relevant combat skills for each character severely limits their strategic options, and having few tactical options in combat seems to limit any possibility of tactical depth. It becomes evident during the presentation, however, that Wasteland 2's systems are more complex than they might seem at first. Adding complexity to the character system is an array of Fallout-like traits and perks. Traits have bonuses and penalties - they are boosts to a character's abilities that come with a trade-off. Perks are additional bonuses characters can pick on level-up – although exactly how often characters get to pick them, the guys weren't sure of yet. “Still being balanced,” Fargo commented. He also pointed out that they had discussed different systems for allowing characters to add traits later in the game. “Basically,” Fargo begins, “we want traits that express how your character changes as he makes decisions in the wasteland. As the player progresses through the game, the characters are changed by the decisions they made and the consequences they have. We'd like to exemplify that via traits in the character system.” All of this seems to add a bit more strategic variety to the character system, beyond just stacking up a few combat skills, though only in the final implementation will we see whether it was successful or not.
Back in the firefight, Findley has sent his men into cover, and the enemies are scrambling to cover as well, demonstrating the game's cover mechanics. I ask Beekers: “you have some sort of range system in place as well, right?” Beekers nods, and asks Findley to select a ranged character. When the character is selected, squares light up on the screen. “The green squares,” Beekers explains and points to the green squares close to the character, “represent a bonus to hit. The character is so close that hitting with a firearm is trivial. The yellow squares,” he continues and points at medium range from the character “represent normal range. Finally, the red squares,” Beekers points to the squares farthest away from the character, “represent a penalty to hit due to the range.”
Fargo continues with an overview of the game's weapon mechanics. Ammo is generally sparse, although depending on your choices, you might see a lot or little of it. Use multiple guys with assault rifles? Better come packed with salvage skills to stack up on ammo, and even then, you will often run dry. Focus on single shot weapons and salvaging skills? Perhaps you'll be able to amass plenty of bullets with enough work, but your guns won't be as versatile or powerful as other weapons. Focus on multiple weapons? Well, then you're giving up on other skills. “With Wasteland 2,” Fargo explains, “our driving design is to make sure everything has trade-offs.” Assault rifles are versatile and powerful, handguns are reliable and have decent range, while sniper rifles are accurate and devastating, but can't even be used at too close a range. When a rabid wolf charges Findley's sniper, it applies a damage-over-time effect to him while he scrambles to get some distance from the wolf so he can fire at it.</blockquote>Then we move on to Hooked Gamers:<blockquote>With up to 30 different skills to draw from, switching between characters to find the right skill for a particular task can be a bit of a chore. To solve this, Wasteland 2 introduces a party bar which combines many of the most often used skills into a single bar that is active when the entire party is selected. Select a single character and you’ll still be able to zoom in on his or her specific skills. Fans of the genre will also appreciate the smart inventory feature. Found loot will not just go into the lead character’s inventory but to the person who is most likely to be able to make use of it. This way, sniper rifle bullets no longer end up in your melee fighters’ inventory but in your sniper’s pockets instead.
There is also a lot of emphasis at using the right weapon for the right job. A sniper rifle is only effective at long range and becomes a liability when enemies get into close range. Handguns will do some damage when a target is further away but receive damage bonuses as you close the distance. Bullets also have two specific characteristics: the rate at which they expand upon impact – and thus the amount of damage they inflict – and the penetration value – their ability to penetrate armor. Picking the right ammo for the job adds a whole new dimension to combat, especially if you consider the scarcity of ammo in the wastelands.
Apart from your run-of-the-mill healing and repair skills, a number of more esoteric ones have been added as well. The Animal Whisper skill proved to be a particularly fun one, in a somewhat perverted way. In most cases, a minefield would require someone with a high perception skill and someone with the ability to disable mines to get through unscathed. But a talented Animal Whisperer might convince a nearby herd of sheep to... well, you get the picture.</blockquote>Polygon has a brief piece and a video interview with Brian Fargo:<blockquote>Wasteland 2 appears to be exactly the sort of game I expected and that Fargo wanted to make, a game that is distinctly not for everyone, something that publishers turned their backs on, but that some gamers waited their lives for.
Wasteland 2 will take place 15 years after the first game ended. That means its jump in time is less than the real one that occurred between Wasteland and the sequel. It will be 100 years after bombs dropped, desert rangers will still be the cops of the future.
The game's characters will feature six attributes, a dozen combat skills, some knowledge skills and even more general skills. Those general skills run from the mundane (weapon smithing) to the unusual (kiss ass).
The game seems packed with the attention to detail and level of nuance that today's gamers might not enjoy. There is, for instance, quite a lot of text in this game, just like in the original.
Fargo seems to be creating a game he's been thinking about for a long time, following an idea he's been pondering for years.
He says he doesn't know when the game is coming out yet (the beta is in October) and that he's not going to rush that decision.
"I waited 20 years," he said. "Lets get this right."</blockquote>Finally, there's a video interview over at DualShockers.
